Call number
964.38 S
Collection
Publication
Bantam (2006), Edition: First Edition, 348 pages
Description
In the tradition of A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, acclaimed English travel writer Tahir Shah shares a highly entertaining account of making an exotic dream come true. By turns hilarious and harrowing, here is the story of his family's move from the gray skies of London to the sun-drenched city of Casablanca, where Islamic tradition and African folklore converge-and nothing is as easy as it seems.... Inspired by the Moroccan vacations of his childhood, Tahir Shah dreamed of making a home in that astonishing country. At age thirty-six he got his chance. Investing what money he and his wife, Rachana, had, Tahir packed up his growing family and bought Dar Khalifa, a crumbling ruin of a mansion by the sea in Casablanca that once belonged to the city's caliph, or spiritual leader. With its lush grounds, cool, secluded courtyards, and relaxed pace, life at Dar Khalifa seems sure to fulfill Tahir's fantasy-until he discovers that in many ways he is farther from home than he imagined. For in Morocco an empty house is thought to attract jinns, invisible spirits unique to the Islamic world. The ardent belief in their presence greatly hampers sleep and renovation plans, but that is just the beginning. From elaborate exorcism rituals involving sacrificial goats to dealing with gangster neighbors intent on stealing their property, the Shahs must cope with a new culture and all that comes with it. Endlessly enthralling, The Caliph's House charts a year in the life of one family who takes a tremendous gamble. As we follow Tahir on his travels throughout the kingdom, from Tangier to Marrakech to the Sahara, we discover a world of fierce contrasts that any true adventurer would be thrilled to call home.… (more)
Media reviews
Academy for Christian Thought
Although this fun book claimed to be a real account of Shah's adventure in Casablanca with a fixer upper, it soon becomes clear that he took significant journalistic license to weave a memorable story. The Moroccan preoccupation with djinns (genies) was the central character of this melodrama and
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through Shah's eyes, we get a comical glimpse of life in modern Morocco. I read this book with great anticipation and once I came to terms with the literary devices he used to create a fictional narrative, I enjoyed the book immensely. This is a marvelous introduction to the mosaic that makes up Maroc or Maghreb, as the locals call their wonderful country. The gist of the story is a jaded Scottish-Afghan Londoner of Persian stock married to an Indian wife with 2 young kids making a go at migrating to the former French Morocco. He purchased a dilapidated Dar (courtyard house) and spent an entire year coaxing the colorful local craftmen to redeem its former glory with varying levels of success. The last few pages was splendidly crafted to move the reader to the brink of tears as he revealed the kindness of the locals behind the adamant traditions that bind them. This telling of a personal story is reminiscent of the ancient story tellers of Israel whose accounts informed the writers of the Old Testament, where historical events were weaved into memorable vignettes and embellished to emphasize theological claims. Tahir Shah is a master story teller and I look forward to his other offerings. That a writer can bring a smile of inner joy to readers he will never meet signals the high art of the craft we call writing. Long may we treasure this most human of capabilities - the make sense of the world and transmit it through geography and history. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member bkswrites
Another amusing collection of anecdotes, and I did learn a lot about Moroccan (or at least Casablancan) culture. But there's no real story to follow, and the anecdotes are too self-centered. Since Shah took his whole family to live in Dar Kalifa, including a very young baby, I wanted to know how on
And then there are the children. We hear that Ariane goes to school, but learn nothing about how that goes for her. We get to see her father make one mistake after another that could traumatize a young child for years — dead cats, huge rats, strange people trooping and falling through the house, poisonous plants in the garden, and of course the goat. These kids are either incredibly tough cookies or wackos, and I'm not sure which disturbs me more.
Most of all, I think I resent learning nothing of what living through this year meant to Shah as a writer (other than providing a new source of royalties, possibly to finance his writing something more interesting). Not until the very last pages do we see him doing any writing, and learn that he's doing it in fountain pen. Well, that at least tells me something about his romanticism, but I wish he'd let that romanticism and a few fully fleshed characters infect the rest of the book.
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earth his wife put up with it. We hear that Tahir wanted to stay forever in the hotel to which they escaped from unwelcome guests. I can only imagine what a woman with an infant would feel, particularly because Rachana Shah comes into that anecdote only as the sounding board for Tahir's frustration. And then there are the children. We hear that Ariane goes to school, but learn nothing about how that goes for her. We get to see her father make one mistake after another that could traumatize a young child for years — dead cats, huge rats, strange people trooping and falling through the house, poisonous plants in the garden, and of course the goat. These kids are either incredibly tough cookies or wackos, and I'm not sure which disturbs me more.
Most of all, I think I resent learning nothing of what living through this year meant to Shah as a writer (other than providing a new source of royalties, possibly to finance his writing something more interesting). Not until the very last pages do we see him doing any writing, and learn that he's doing it in fountain pen. Well, that at least tells me something about his romanticism, but I wish he'd let that romanticism and a few fully fleshed characters infect the rest of the book.
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LibraryThing member akeela
In an attempt to realise his "delusions of grandeur", Shah moves to Morocco with his family of four, from London, buys an expansive house set on an acre of ground and starts renovating it to make it more habitable. Apparently the house had been vacant for ages. This delightful memoir spans the year
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of renovations and of coming-to-terms with the sometimes outlandish customs of the locals. This was well-written and very entertaining! Show Less
LibraryThing member debnance
Tahir Shah wearies of London and its safe banality. He finally convinces his pregnant wife to buy a disaster of a mansion in Morocco and relocate there with their young daughter. From the beginning, their adventure feels doomed. Cats are found hanging by ropes from trees, strangled. The next door
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neighbor is the mysterious head of the Casablanca Mafia. Renovation efforts are led by a team of workers who can’t seem to complete anything. Everyone seems to believe in diabolical jinns, spirits who live in the mansion and who appear to want the family to abandon the house. Banality starts looking better and better to Tahir. Show Less
LibraryThing member teaperson
Quite the home renovation project from heck. In Morocco, the author finds that you can't get workmen, you need to buy supplies from them on the black market, and they never finish. But he tells it with British good humor. I was slightly annoyed at first that the author's move to Casablanca seemed
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designed mainly to produce a travel book, not for any other reason. But I got caught up in the great characters he met, and genuinely got a better sense of parts of life in Morocco. Show Less
LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
Tahir Shah quits the comfortable convenience of London with his wife and young children, and buys a beautiful, but run-down, estate in Casablanca. The book is about his first year's experiences in Casablanca, and is a more gruelling "Year in Provence."
I struggled through parts of the book. I found
Still, a really worthwhile read for the insights it offers into Moroccan living.
I struggled through parts of the book. I found
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the story to be captivating, but when a writer describes a difficult experience well, it can prove to be a difficult reading experience too, and I certainly found that to be the case. Shah's writing style was also sometimes distracting - he has a tendency to run from one topic to another, keeping each story ultrashort, when perhaps it would have been better had he kept to one issue at a time and explored each more fully.Still, a really worthwhile read for the insights it offers into Moroccan living.
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LibraryThing member varielle
Anyone who has ever taken on the challenge of remodeling an older home will shake their head in wonder at the fortitude of Tahir Shah in facing the monumental task of modernizing a rambling, but beautiful old wreck on the edge of a slum in Casablanca. Even more astonishing was his wife's patience
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with this never-ending, jinn plagued task. He left his London flat with his wife and two small children to live in his future dream home (read money pit). No matter the culture, carpenters, masons, plumbers and the rest of that lot share a universal brotherhood that could drive the sanest home owner mad. Shah eventually surrenders his western attitudes and relaxes into the wheeling-dealing world that is Morocco. Show Less
LibraryThing member allison.sivak
Reading Shah's other books, I thought he was a very together, maverick, confident man. But this read as obsessive, and manic. Maybe those are the traits that would allow someone to try and dive into other cultures and lands the way Shah has.
LibraryThing member Stevejm51
Tahir Shah's memoir is a fascinating glimpse into the every day life of an family living in a rundown mansion in Casablanca. Tired of the dull gray life of London, Shah buys a rambling home and moves his family into one of the mansion's rooms. He contracts with architects and artisans to renovate
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the house, but the presence of spirits, or Jinns, makes even the most simple job complicated. There is humor on every page as Shah struggles to understand life in Morocco. Show Less
LibraryThing member nemoman
Shah tires of London's dreary climate. He decides to pack up his family and move to Morocco. His grandfather had lived in Tangiers and he remembered exotic vacations as a boy driving through the Atlas Mountains. After looking in Fes and Marrakesh, he locates a fixer-upper in Casablanca, known
The ensuing tribulations of trying to restore the home, using local architects and craftsmen is reminiscent Mayle's A Year In Provence. It is a deeper book than that, however, if only because Moroccan tribal culture is much more complex and exotic than rural southern French culture. For example, Shah has to hire 25 tribal exorcists to stay at the house, and practice rituals, including the killing of a wild goat, to exorcise the evil Jinns that infest the house.
Shah writes well and the book is a humorous, fun read. Moreover, Shah has posted numerous informative videos on youtube that enrich the reading experience. Excellent travel literature.
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locally as the Caliph's house, or Dar Khalifa.The ensuing tribulations of trying to restore the home, using local architects and craftsmen is reminiscent Mayle's A Year In Provence. It is a deeper book than that, however, if only because Moroccan tribal culture is much more complex and exotic than rural southern French culture. For example, Shah has to hire 25 tribal exorcists to stay at the house, and practice rituals, including the killing of a wild goat, to exorcise the evil Jinns that infest the house.
Shah writes well and the book is a humorous, fun read. Moreover, Shah has posted numerous informative videos on youtube that enrich the reading experience. Excellent travel literature.
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LibraryThing member kaitanya64
Shah, who is Anglo-Afghani, buys an old house in Morocco and moves his family to a new continent and a new life. The book details his cultural adventures as well as his struggles to revive and renovate the beautiful but decrepit house of his dreams.
LibraryThing member BJAppelgren
If you like memoirs, read The Caliph's House by Idries Shah's son Tahir Shah. He moves his wife and children into an abandoned property with beautiful potential and in the story of its renovation creates a rich picture of the culture. He charms the reader with depicting himself as a bumbling and
A friend, Hillel Natanson adds, "It's an entertaining story that unmasks at least some of the mystery of Moroccan culture. His self-deprecating portrait lightens up a story that in other hands might have been a bit heavy and tedious. I second the recommendation.
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accepting man open to differences in people and their ways. A delight! A friend, Hillel Natanson adds, "It's an entertaining story that unmasks at least some of the mystery of Moroccan culture. His self-deprecating portrait lightens up a story that in other hands might have been a bit heavy and tedious. I second the recommendation.
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LibraryThing member Auntie-Nanuuq
I actually began reading this book several years ago & put it down as I didn't have the interest to finish it, but I guess "Things Change"....
In 2004, Tahir Shah, purchased a house in Casablanca, Morocco known as Dar Khalifa. It was once owned by wealthy people but had fallen into disrepair and it
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had the distinction of being on the border of the slums.....Upon arriving Shah & his family came upon the "guardians" of Dar Khalifa, who of course were more than reluctant to accept the family & the changes they proposed to make to the the house & property, lest they displease Qandisha, the resident Jinn (who was eventually "exorcised").
Not one to be discouraged, Shah went ahead with the onerous project, meeting & dealing w/ more than one "difficult" party.... In the process he did meet a few friends of his grandfather's and made many new friends as well......
It amazed me, that a man of well being, who himself was from Afghanistan, allowed himself to be so cowed by the people who worked for him!
But it was an interesting book, well written and rather detailed towards the end describing the interior construction of the house.
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LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
Everyone has a story of an event in their lives; how they met their sparkling spouse, how they came into their fascinating occupation, how they started an odd hobby for which they are extremely passionate. The most interesting stories are the ones that are life changing; an abrupt 180 degree turn
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from where they used to be. A hobby turning into a business so they can quit their dead end job, for example. Tahir Shah has such a story in The Caliph's House. The London based travel writer was looking to move to Morocco. Tired of grey weather and bland food, he wanted to get back to the culture of his ancestry. After many false starts a classmate of his mother's contacted him out of the blue in 2004 with an offer he couldn't refuse: the sale of Dar Khalifa, the once home of a Caliph, a spiritual leader of Casablanca. Even though this is a story about living through a house renovation it goes beyond tiles and plumbing. Shah explores what it means to buy and restore a house in a post 911 society. Morocco struggles to be a paradise of tolerance. At the same time, Shah becomes intimately and intensely aware of "how things get done" when he hires a man of ill repute to be his right hand man. Encounters with thieves, possible murderers, even the mob are the norm. But, it is the exorcism that readers all wait for with breath held. Who in their right mind would slaughter a goat in every room of a mansion-sized abode? Show Less
LibraryThing member pennykaplan
Tahir Shah, his wife and two young children abandon London for Morocco, and end up spending a year completely renovating a mansion in the middle of a slum in Casablanca. A fascinating discovery of the Moroccan character and it’s preoccupation with jinn, evil spirits, ensues. Calls for a willing
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suspension of disbelief but fascinating to explore a totally different mind set. Show Less
LibraryThing member breic
A quick, fun read.
It's basically the story of a big home remodel, so there is not a lot of substance. There is some humor, and a light impression of Moroccan culture, but not enough of either. Unfortunately, there aren't good portraits of any of the other characters, neither in Shah's family nor
It ends with the exorcism of the house's djinns, on the one-year anniversary of Shah's stay in Morocco. While this might be a natural ending spot, I wanted more closure. What happens to Kamal, to the wannabe American terrorist, or the neighborhood gangster? At least tell us more about the house. Perhaps I have to read the sequel.
> One week I asked if he believed in Jinns. "Of course I do," he said without a thought. "They are all around us. Their world shapes our own."
> Fortunately, his weakened condition made it easy to take control. Unlike him, and everyone else, I was eating three meals a day and sleeping seven hours a night. By the final days of Ramadan, I felt like king of the world.
> As word of the banquet spread, more and more homeless souls arrived to eat. … The architect's face became so ferociously red that I feared he might keel over. I asked for my money. He fired off a salvo of excuses. "Our friends want to touch the paintings," Kamal said. The architect glanced at the beggars' oily fingers, the mess on the floor, and clapped his hands to his cheeks. He strode over to his desk and wrote me out a check.
> as Kamal explained, marriage to a Moroccan woman would set me on a fast track through the ocean of bureaucracy.
> As I toured the great buildings of Morocco, I found myself perplexed that they had ever been completed at all. Whenever I ran through the house ranting, the master craftsmen would grin broadly and exclaim that only Allah was complete.
> "They have asked you to have all the books translated into Arabic by an official translator." "But there are more than ten thousand books," I said. "Each one's more than two hundred pages." I did a calculation. "That's at least two million pages." "An official translator charges ten dollars a page," said Kamal.
> Two days before Eid, the poor creatures became invaluable sales tools. Buy a new washing machine and you got a ram thrown in for free; buy a used car and you got half a dozen of them. One electronics store on Boulevard Zerktouni raffled an entire flock the night before Eid, causing absolute hysteria.
It's basically the story of a big home remodel, so there is not a lot of substance. There is some humor, and a light impression of Moroccan culture, but not enough of either. Unfortunately, there aren't good portraits of any of the other characters, neither in Shah's family nor
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the Moroccans. Peter Hessler could have done more with this material. It ends with the exorcism of the house's djinns, on the one-year anniversary of Shah's stay in Morocco. While this might be a natural ending spot, I wanted more closure. What happens to Kamal, to the wannabe American terrorist, or the neighborhood gangster? At least tell us more about the house. Perhaps I have to read the sequel.
> One week I asked if he believed in Jinns. "Of course I do," he said without a thought. "They are all around us. Their world shapes our own."
> Fortunately, his weakened condition made it easy to take control. Unlike him, and everyone else, I was eating three meals a day and sleeping seven hours a night. By the final days of Ramadan, I felt like king of the world.
> As word of the banquet spread, more and more homeless souls arrived to eat. … The architect's face became so ferociously red that I feared he might keel over. I asked for my money. He fired off a salvo of excuses. "Our friends want to touch the paintings," Kamal said. The architect glanced at the beggars' oily fingers, the mess on the floor, and clapped his hands to his cheeks. He strode over to his desk and wrote me out a check.
> as Kamal explained, marriage to a Moroccan woman would set me on a fast track through the ocean of bureaucracy.
> As I toured the great buildings of Morocco, I found myself perplexed that they had ever been completed at all. Whenever I ran through the house ranting, the master craftsmen would grin broadly and exclaim that only Allah was complete.
> "They have asked you to have all the books translated into Arabic by an official translator." "But there are more than ten thousand books," I said. "Each one's more than two hundred pages." I did a calculation. "That's at least two million pages." "An official translator charges ten dollars a page," said Kamal.
> Two days before Eid, the poor creatures became invaluable sales tools. Buy a new washing machine and you got a ram thrown in for free; buy a used car and you got half a dozen of them. One electronics store on Boulevard Zerktouni raffled an entire flock the night before Eid, causing absolute hysteria.
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LibraryThing member michaelgambill
A mildly engaging book that provides insight into a portion of Moroccan culture and generated in me a desire to know more. I found it far from hysterically funny as others have indicated, however it managed arouse an smile on a couple of occasions. As a person that disdains fiction writing I was at
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times irked with the narrative suspecting that many of his adventures were largely a product of his imagination or grossly embellished. His cultural blindness, lapses in sensitivity, and general ineptness was a bit too glaring and inconsistent to be believable. Perhaps this is the vehicle he uses to bring insight into his encounter with Moroccan culture but as a voracious reader of history I first of all want an accurate representation of the events. Maybe this is too much to ask from travel writing. Show Less
LibraryThing member aahlvers
The Caliph's House: A Year In Casablanca by Shah is a humorous look at the Moroccan people and culture from an outsider's perspective. Shah does a great job at presenting the humor and affection for the culture when describing disastrous moments (of which there were many) as well as the every day
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details about his new home. I love these kind of books where expatriate are offered advice by a series of well intentioned but ultimately baffling local residents. Show Less
LibraryThing member WellReadSoutherner
Completely fascinating about living in Morrocco and trying to renovate a house. Not sure that I could have put up with all the crap they did about Muslim superstitions. I'm much too logical and common sense for that.
Awards
IBBY Honour Book (Writing — 2012)
The White Ravens (2010)
Pages
348
ISBN
0553803999 / 9780553803990